Chapter Fourteen
It was ten o’clock the following morning and Anna was starting to worry.
‘Still no sign of him?’
Hayley shook her head. ‘I called the hotel and they say he’s already checked out.’
‘I did, but it’s switched off.’
Thanking Hayley, Anna walked back to her office.
Where the heck was the man? Had he simply forgotten he was meant to be coming back today?
Or . . . she tried to push the thought out of her mind, but her stomach began to knot with worry.
Could he have been in an accident between the hotel and the school?
Was he in the back of an ambulance, on his way to hospital?
Fear clutched at her and Anna gripped at her desk.
No. She wasn’t going to sink back into that devastating mindset caused by Chris’s death.
The one where she automatically assumed the worst. Where if Maisie was five minutes late walking back from Val and Bob’s, Anna started to shake, terrified she’d been run over in the twenty-yard journey between the two houses.
There was another explanation. He’d had a puncture. Yes, that was it. Any minute now Dan would stroll through the reception, that handsome face full of apology.
And he hadn’t phoned, because he’d forgotten to charge it up before he left the hotel.
Yes, that was it.
Inhaling deeply, Anna climbed back to her feet. She’d have to let Bridget know Dan was probably going to be a no-show.
Because he was having car trouble.
But as she walked towards class 4C, Anna’s stomach continued to clench, and dread to prickle down her spine.
* * *
Dan plonked himself down in the armchair in the business class lounge and immediately plugged his phone in to charge. A quick look at his watch and he winced. Damn, he should be teaching class 4C now. They must be wondering where the hell he was.
Dan willed the battery on his phone to charge enough that he could use it. And cursed himself for being so full of Anna last night, of the memory of their hot make-out session in the car, that he’d forgotten to plug it in when he’d got back to the hotel.
Finally, finally, the screen lit up and he called the school.
‘Hi, Hayley, it’s Dan here. Sorry I didn’t phone earlier, damn phone went flat.’
‘Where are you? Anna’s been asking after you.’
He could just imagine. And to be fair, he couldn’t blame her. ‘I guess I’m in trouble.’
‘I’m not sure about that. She was more worried.’
A memory flashed through him from that evening they’d spent in the school, waiting for the alarm company.
Chris had died in a car accident. A wave of sickness surged through him.
Shit. He’d cocked this up majorly. She was imagining him lying in a ditch somewhere and here he was, in the business lounge, about to fly off to LA.
Abandoning his responsibilities back at the school.
Voice tight with guilt, with shame, he asked Hayley if he could talk to Anna.
A few moments later he heard her breathless voice.
‘Are you okay?’
And damn it, now the guilt has multiplied.
A giant boulder hanging round his neck. ‘Err, yes, thanks. I’m fine.
Actually.’ He scrunched up his face, wondering if what he was about to say next was going to lead to him being ditched from the school altogether.
‘Sorry I didn’t phone earlier, but it’s all been a bit of a whirlwind, and then my phone went dead. ’
‘Dan?’
The confusion in her voice tore through him.
God, he’d been selfish, dashing off to the airport without a moment’s thought to the school, and what he should be doing today.
Selfish and irresponsible. ‘Pete called me late last night. I’ve been offered a chance to try out for a part.
’ He said it quickly, anxious to get to the bit where she tore him off a strip, so then he could get to the bit where he apologised — again — and she forgave him, reassuring him she’d see him next week.
Then he could get on this plane not feeling like a self-absorbed bastard who’d just added another colossal mistake to his recent run of real humdingers, ranging from not pushing to see his son, through to excessive alcohol and partying.
There was a pause, and he felt the air cooling between them even from this distance.
‘You’ve left already?’ There was both incredulity and a touch of scorn in her voice.
‘Yes.’ He tried to swallow down some of the guilt.
This was his job, after all. His future.
Surely she’d see it was more important than a school play?
‘It was a last-minute thing, an actor they’d already lined up cancelled and they had to quickly re-audition.
They said if I could get to them today, they’d see me.
I didn’t think it would be too big a deal.
’ Mentally he slapped himself for sounding so defensive.
He should have phoned her last night, except it had been late and he’d not wanted to wake her, thinking he’d phone her this morning while heading down the motorway.
‘I guess I should say congratulations.’
Her tone was formal, cool, and it scraped over him like nails scratching at polystyrene. ‘I’m sorry if I’ve let you down.’
‘If?’ Her sigh was worse than the frustration and the anger he’d heard from her before.
It was filled with heavy disappointment.
‘I’ll apologise to the teachers who were expecting you to help their classes with acting lessons today.
And I’ll apologise to the children you promised you’d be there for after school, to run through the play. Goodbye, Dan.’
Before he could say anything more, the line went dead.
Cursing under his breath, Dan ran a hand over his face, feeling suddenly weary.
And muddled. Oh, and frustrated, too, because last night he’d felt on top of the world.
A chance to try out for a Hollywood film was, well, frankly, unbelievable.
Yet Anna hadn’t just punctured a hole in his little bubble of joy, she’d stamped all over it.
The worse of it was, he couldn’t direct any of his angst at her, because he’d deserved every cutting word she’d said.
He should have got Pete to tell the producers he had a commitment today, but he’d fly in tomorrow.
Not jumped at the chance like an over enthusiastic puppy with no responsibilities.
At the very least he should have charged his bloody phone.
The gadget in question lit up again, and for a heart-stopping moment he thought it was Anna, phoning to apologise for being so curt. To wish him good luck.
But no, it was Natalie.
‘Hey, Nat.’
His ex-wife no longer liked her name being shortened, but since Dan had always done it, he wasn’t going to stop now that she’d decided it wasn’t fitting for an actress of her stature. ‘Hello, Daniel.’
He found he couldn’t even raise a smirk at her obvious dig.
‘To what do I owe this rare pleasure?’ He had a sudden image of Max, afraid to move from Natalie’s side, and his shoulders slumped.
This was his son’s mother. If he was ever going to rebuild his relationship with Max, he had to rebuild one with her, too.
Gentling his voice, he amended. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound snide.
You caught me at a bad time.’ And how ironic that sitting in a business lounge, about to embark on an all-expenses paid trip to LA to see a Hollywood producer, was now a bad time.
‘Oh, are you at that school you’re helping?’
Another dose of guilt wriggled through him.
‘I should be but no, something came up.’ Something he wasn’t going to tell her about, because when — no if — he was going to remain at least slightly optimistic.
If it came to nothing, he didn’t want her to have something else to belittle him about.
‘Is everything okay?’ And that should have been his first question, he realised belatedly.
‘Yes. I was just phoning to check about the weekend. You’re still having Max, I take it?’
‘Of course.’ He might have let down Anna, and a whole bunch of other people’s kids, but he wasn’t about to let down his own. Not any more than he’d done already.
‘I wanted to know what time you planned on picking him up and dropping him back, so I could arrange my day.’
Perfectly reasonable, yet the last time he’d seen Max alone, admittedly over a year ago, Natalie had been the one dictating to him that he couldn’t have Max for longer than a few hours.
‘I was hoping to take him to see The Lion King.’ Though now there might be two empty seats next to them, he thought sadly.
‘Have lunch beforehand. Maybe an ice cream afterwards.’ He decided to risk it.
‘And tea at my place before I drop him back.’
‘So he’ll be back around seven?’
‘It can be later if you like.’ He wasn’t giving her earlier. Not now she’d played her hand.
To his surprise, she didn’t argue. ‘Would eight be okay?’
‘Yes.’ He knew he sounded confused. That’s because he was. ‘A few days ago you seemed unhappy about me seeing him for the whole day. Six months ago, you didn’t want me to see him at all. Now, unbidden, you’re giving me an extra hour?’
‘I’ve never been unhappy about you seeing him.’
‘No? You told me Max was, how did you put it, uncomfortable in my presence. When I pushed, you said he didn’t want to see me.’
The pause at her end was so long he checked the screen to make sure they hadn’t been disconnected. ‘Did I really?’
‘Bloody hell, Nat, you think what you said hasn’t been lodged in my head ever since? It’s the reason I haven’t seen him for so long.’ He was choking on his words, his throat closing up around them. ‘The last thing I want to do is upset my son.’
Another excruciating period of silence followed before she spoke again. ‘I realise that. I’m sorry if I gave you the impression that seeing you would upset him. It’s just the less you saw of him, the more it disrupted our routine. And the less excited he was about seeing you when you did turn up.’
He wanted to throw the phone across the lounge.
To scream at the top of his voice. ‘I turned up, Nat. You were the one who wasn’t there when I did.
The one who’d cancel on me at the last minute.
’ Aware the other passengers in the lounge were starting to look at him, Dan tried to calm his voice.
‘I wasn’t the reason the time between visits became longer, Nat. ’
He heard her exhale in what sounded like frustration. ‘There’s no point going over old ground. He was never upset about seeing you. Just not very enthusiastic. I think his words were, Do I have to see Dad?’
It wasn’t as bad as not wanting to see him, but by God it hurt to hear her say that. To know his son had begun to see his visits as a duty, not a pleasure.
‘But now he wants to see me?’ It wasn’t the impression he’d had when Max had clung to his mother’s side a few days ago.
‘I explained you were taking him out for the day and he didn’t say no,’ she countered. ‘He nodded.’
He’d take that, Dan realised. Snatch at it even, because it was one heck of a lot better than being too afraid to see him. In the background, the tannoy announced his flight departure. ‘Look, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you Saturday.’
Maybe he wouldn’t need Maisie and Anna to help ease the situation. Maybe he and Max could have a good time anyway.
There was no maybe about it. They could, they would, have a good day.
It’s just he also wanted Anna and Maisie to be there. Wanted to treat sweet-as-gumdrops Maisie to The Lion King. Wanted to see if the pulsating attraction he felt towards Anna was still there when he was on his own turf.
And yes, he’d wanted to persuade her into more than a kiss.
Any chance of which he’d just ruined. Please God he wouldn’t also ruin his relationship with his son — at least no more than he had already.